Archie Bronson Outfit

Music

Yeeeeaaaaarrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh! Now this is what you want! An album that crash lands in your living room like a drunk at the controls of a time machine, careering down some post-garage, psych-rock worm hole into 2010, seething and spitting as it goes, torching the wet end of your record collection with its vapour trail before slamming headfirst into your drinks cabinet and staggering to its feet and slurring “Right then, I’m Archie Bronson’s 3rd Album ‘Coconut’ have you got a fucking light or what?” Quite simply, it’s the most fearsomely groovy, righteous racket you’ll hear all year.

On first listen however, ‘Coconut’ might appear to be little more than a near impenetrable blast of scuzzy garage and distorted disembodied howling. Don’t even think about putting it on quietly whilst you thumb through the Sunday papers – you’ll think someone’s swapped your iPod dock for a bakelite wireless. And certainly don’t pit its incessant fuzz against the mid range whiteout of running water or a washing machine – you’ll just assume your neighbours are landing a F-16 in next door’s garden. This album demands attention and thunderous volume of its own. Give it that and you’ll hear its constituent parts snap crisply into focus like interlocking puzzle pieces. For as thick and uncompromising as this album sounds you’re never far from a propulsive, humping groove or a purpose built solid gold pop hook. Just try to ignore “Hoola”‘s swooning falsetto backing vocals, “One Up On Yourself”‘s gigantic strutting bassline, or “Bite it And Believe It”‘s unfeasibly catchy flute enhanced verses.

Kudos also to producer and ex-DFA man Tim Goldsworthy not just for drawing out punk-funk vibes on “Hoola” or locating their inner PiL on “Chunk”; but engineering at the same time handful of exceptional sonic incidents. Be it stacking up layer upon layer of cascading delays across “Wild Strawberries” till its declamatory chorus appears to erupt like a volcano spewing liquid acid, or manufacturing a teeth grinding mass of skronk and skree across “You Have A Right To A Mountain Life”‘s opening bars – for the attentive, Coconut is endlessly rewarding and utterly compelling throughout.

It’s not all grinding filth though. Track 9, though eerily reminiscent of Deep Blue Something’s hateful “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” mixes lazy percussion with trickling, tumbledown arpeggios; creaky and whacked out though it is, it’s undeniably affecting too. Try as they might to exhibit a softer side though, someone ought to let Mr. Bronson know he aint romancing no ladies with lines like “I’m gonna hunt you down….I’ve got a hunger now” Mr. Bronson, you sense is not going to be interested in your dating tips though. And why would he be? It’s the zero compromise stance and bug eyed conviction that makes Archie Bronson Outfit the sensational band they are. And ‘Coconut’ their brutal, barrelling best.

Jim Brackpool